This paper seeks to make a contribution to debates about the continuing performance and
significance of community within contemporary society. The subject of the paper is
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a relatively new form of co-operative venture
between farmers and their neighbours in which the community shoulders some of the risk of
farming (usually by pre-paying agreed prices for the produce) and shares in the resulting
harvest. This approach to farming is increasingly popular in Western societies, where it is
commonly seen as a means of ‘re-establishing’ localised relationships between community
members, farmers and the environment. While recognising the transformative potential of
CSA, this paper suggests that the theoretical foundations of such co-operation are wellestablished and can be understood as gift-based, fostering deep connections between people as
a means of resisting external pressures. As such, this paper posits that the significance of the
emergence of CSA lies in the refusal to accept a market-based notion of food communities
and the durability of certain forms of community as a means of understanding the ways in
which people actively engage in making multiple connections, in this case with other people,
with land and with food.
This paper seeks to make a contribution to debates about the continuing performance andsignificance of community within contemporary society. The subject of the paper isCommunity Supported Agriculture (CSA), a relatively new form of co-operative venturebetween farmers and their neighbours in which the community shoulders some of the risk offarming (usually by pre-paying agreed prices for the produce) and shares in the resultingharvest. This approach to farming is increasingly popular in Western societies, where it iscommonly seen as a means of ‘re-establishing’ localised relationships between communitymembers, farmers and the environment. While recognising the transformative potential ofCSA, this paper suggests that the theoretical foundations of such co-operation are wellestablished and can be understood as gift-based, fostering deep connections between people asa means of resisting external pressures. As such, this paper posits that the significance of theemergence of CSA lies in the refusal to accept a market-based notion of food communitiesand the durability of certain forms of community as a means of understanding the ways inwhich people actively engage in making multiple connections, in this case with other people,with land and with food.
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